Possible issues with my Cory cats

[mkowals2]

I have 5 green corys in my 33g tank and they all seem to be acting completely normal. It's the way they look that is what's worrying me. The first possible issue I noticed was that one of them in particular seems to have developed a VERY large round stomach compared to the other 4. I don't know if he's actually just a bit fat and I should feed less, or if this could be a serious problem.

The second possible issue is that two of the green corys (2 of the smaller ones actually) look a lot more red than the others do, not in any particular area, but all over their bodies. Also, in comparisson to images on the net, all five of my green corys don't look very green. They look more of like a tan or peachy kind of colour, and only have a few small areas of reflective green.

The third and final possible issue is that from when I purchased the corys a few months ago, their barbels seem to have gotten drastically shorter. All I have read on this subject is that it could be a sign of stress but they seem to be acting normal and happy, and my water parameters are good.

If anyone has any ideas or answers to one or more of these queries I would really appreciate the help

Thanks very much for your time,

-Mike

[Toss]

fat=could be female ready for spawning
more red=male ready for spawning

[mkowals2]

Lol wow very cool! I didn't think anything like would happen because I have read it's often hard to get them to breed but I guess the water conditions I have are well suited to corys... I will have to read up on this lol

Thanks Toss!

[Daisy]

I hope I have this sort of luck, too :-)
I have a very nice tank full of fish, but I think the corys are my favourites :-)
Though - I feel guilty (being a newbie) for having a mismatched bunch (1 julii, one fake julii?, 2 sterbae).
Not a very coherent "school".  They hang out together, but sort of like the Sharks and the Jets :-)
So, little ones seem unlikely!

[washefuzzy]

The females are usually large and rounder than the males and the shortening of barbels could be due to the gravel being to rough, not rounded enough.

When your cories start acting really silly, playing more than usually as a pair, you know some eggs will be coming.  Mine usually lay eggs after they get some fresh water.

[mkowals2]

Oh okay neat! So if I wanted them to breed then should I start doing more frequent water changes? Like maybe 15-20 percent twice a week?

[washefuzzy]

I do water changes every week to week and a half. They seem to like that. Don't over feed and my tanks are lightly populated.

[mkowals2]

Alright thanks washefuzzy, I'm hoping they will breed. It will be the first time I've gotten to see anything other than a live bearer breed in one of my tanks.

Thanks everyone for the advice,

-Mike

[sas]

I've had great success with spawning after feeding alot of frozen foods,
such as bloodworms, shrimp, homemade food etc., as well as a heavily planted tank, with lots of flow.
Using this method they spawn for days , frisky little things.
I do water changes every week to 2 weeks , using a slightly cooler temperature of water.
My corys like to spawn on the glass, very rarely on leaves so it makes it easy to find the eggs to
remove. I keep my corys in a community tank so removing eggs in order to get a hatch is a must.

As far as shorter barbels are concerned I've heard that it could be caused by sharp substrate
or an ammonia spike, causing them to be burned, ouch.
At the same time alot of people say that a cory with no barbels or shortened ones
will starve to death, well my original corys bought second hand before I was "aware" are the ones that spawned
first for me so............ who knows?


Have fun and good luck .

[Anja]

Mike, you might want to check out the new newsletter. It has an article about breeding cories.

http://ovas.ca/newsletters/2010_03_OVAS_NewsLetter_Winter.pdf

[mkowals2]

Oh boy :S I hope they're not going to starve.. They still have SOME barbel length they're just not as long as they used to be, but they still seem to do a great job of cleaning up all the fallen bloodworms in the tank when I feed them, as well as shrimp pellets and algae wafers.

Thanks Anja for linking me to that article, I didn't know that they needed such a low temperature to spawn. I keep my water at around 79 so that's probably why they are ready to spawn but they're not doing it. The next time I do a water change I will add colder water than I usually do and see if that does the trick.

I think the barbel length is probably due to the substrate. I have a smaller sized substrate in my 33g than I do in my ten (and the sub in the ten is also a lot more round and uniform), and when I compare the green corys to the peppered cory in my ten, the peppered cory definitely has a lot longer barbels.

Well thanks again for your help everyone! If they end up breeding I will let you guys know. I don't have a spare tank for the fry though so hopefully some of them will manage to pull through in the tank. There are a few good hiding spots.

Have a good weekend everyone!

-Mike

[washefuzzy]

I guess that is why my coreys spawn I don't heat the tanks so the temperature is 72F in the winter.

[sas]

Great article, thanks Anja for doing the newsletter.

I don't think I would ever add snow to my tanks though these days,
even though it looks fairly clean where I live.